Upload Parameters

	Documentation Applet Configuration Developer FAQ Change Notes Examples Trouble Shooting

Notes on the parameters passed by the applet to the server.

With HTTP file uploads, files are saved on the server by server side component. This component is often referred to as the server side upload handler or simply as the upload handler. Sample handlers are included in the download bundle and on our examples page.

Following is a brief description of data that is avaialble to the upload handler

The array of files : userfile

Information about the files that have been uploaded will be available to the server side handler in the form of an array. The exact contents of the array and the how to retrieve this (and other) data will depend on your chosen web scripting/programming language. You can expect to find at least the filename and file size. Some programming languages will provide additional information such a MIME types and temporary names assigned to the incoming files.

With some langauges (most notably PHP), the file array will assume the name userfile. With other langauges the name of the array is unimportant. Please consult the manual of your chosen scripting/programming language for additional information.

Information about file path : userfile_parent

This parameter contains the pathname of the top level folder on the client computer for the file upload as it appears to the applet. This information is most usefull if you are dealing with recursive folder uploads and when you have configured your applet to send complete pathnames to the server.

Passing additional data

You can pass additional information such as session data to the serverside handler easily. Append the parameter and value to the URL as part of the query string. You must make sure to escape special characters or the applet will complain about not been to establish a connection to the URL provided.

Example:  <param name="url" value = "http://67.131.250.110/upload.php?id=1&greeting=Hello+World">

How these addition parameters can be retrieved depends on the programming or scripting language you use. With most, you will find that a new variable or object with a name identical to the name of your parameter is created by the upload handler script.

If you are using perl with the CGI module you may find that these additional parameters cannot be retrieved via a call to the param() method. However you can still retrieve this information by examining $ENV{'QUERY_STRING'}

When you need to pass a lot of data, it may be impractical to use the approach described above. In such a situation you can either the directly embed the applet into an HTML form, or use a form on a separate page to gather the data.